Saw that from a different link earlier today. Story said that on takeoff some of the cargo shifted, throwing the plane's center of balance off and causing it to stall. Don't know how that could be determined so quickly, unless the crew radioed in something. And I would think they had their hands full with other things at the time.

I am sure the investigation will go over all this, but that seemed to be an awfully steep climb (almost vertical) on takeoff. A 747 is not exactly a fighter jet -- it's not equipped to rocket straight up off the ground -- and obviously at some point this one didn't have the horses to maintain a stable flight path, and stalled out.

Is it normal at Bagram (due to possible 'rogue' weapons fire from the ground) for planes to make super-steep takeoffs, to get them out of range of low-end weapons faster?

Steep climbs are fairly common for large aircraft trying to clear the mountains 10 miles away after departing from runway 3.

Not that steep, though. I have a few buddies still there who say the rumor is load shift.

It wouldn't take much of a shift in aft CG to cause that to happen. That explains the appearance of a steep climb. The loss of only a few pounds on the tail rotor (because it's so far behind the transmission) can cause a Black Hawk to be unrecoverable.

I am sure the investigation will go over all this, but that seemed to be an awfully steep climb (almost vertical) on takeoff. A 747 is not exactly a fighter jet -- it's not equipped to rocket straight up off the ground -- and obviously at some point this one didn't have the horses to maintain a stable flight path, and stalled out.

Is it normal at Bagram (due to possible 'rogue' weapons fire from the ground) for planes to make super-steep takeoffs, to get them out of range of low-end weapons faster?

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I think the load shifted, causing the stall. A good loadmaster can make or break a transport aircraft.